


Market

by squit (orphan_account)



Series: Ambient [4]
Category: God's Own Country (2017)
Genre: Cheese, Keighley, M/M, farmers market, june 2017, plot: the beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 08:02:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/squit
Summary: Gheorghe makes a friend and goes home with Johnny.





	Market

Gheorghe and John are travelling to Keighley.

John has to run errands in town, and Gheorghe is coming along because it is market day.

Gheorghe has a borrowed backpack on his lap. Inside it is his wallet, an open packet of cigarettes, a lighter, and a jam jar of fresh sheep’s cheese in salted whey.

He has taken more care than usual in his appearance and he is wearing his best shirt. John is smoking a cigarette, tapping the ash off every few minutes out the open windows of the Land Rover. The morning air is fresh and cool.

Gheorghe puts a hand on John's thigh. "Will you look for me at the market?"

"Aye. I'll be done in two shakes."

Gheorghe leaves his hand where it is. John doesn't move away.

*****

At the farmers market, Gheorghe takes his time. He walks around, looking attentively at the stalls, the people visiting them and the people manning them. He takes samples wherever they are being offered, strawberries, salad greens, radishes, crusty bread, chutney, preserves, cheese and sausage.

He feels a pang at how similar and how different it is to the market days of his hometown. The sights, the sounds, the people, even the flavours. Familiar but transposed to a minor key.

He catches unfriendly looks out of the corner of his eye once it twice, but most people are friendly, trying to make a sale or share their enthusiasm.

"As-salaam Alaikum, brother," someone says behind him. "Are you new in town?"

"Hello." He replies politely, turning around to greet the stranger. "I am, yes."

"Welcome to Keighley." A smile, flash of white teeth. "My name is Ali. Please, if you like, come sit with us at our booth and have a cup of tea."

Gheorghe accepts, moving with Ali to a small canopied booth nearby, set up just a little distance away from the market stalls. There is a poster in front. On it is written, "Have questions about Islam?" Below it is a logo and some smaller font Gheorghe doesn't catch.

"My name is Gheorghe." He introduces himself, sitting down on a fold-up plastic chair.

"Nice to meet you."

A smiling woman discreetly places a gently steaming cup of fragrant milky tea in front of him before returning out front to hand out leaflets.

After a few moments of silence, Ali asks, "Where are you from?"

"I am from Romania."

"Ah, I see."

"And you?" Ali's accent is different, and he is more warmly dressed than most.

"I am from Sylhet, in Bangladesh."

"That's a long way away," Gheorghe says, the only thing he knows about Bangladesh.

"We are both far from home, brother."

They both take sips from their teas.

"What do you do here?" Ali asks.

"I work at a farm north of here."

"How nice. My father used to have a few cattle and goats."

They talk about ruminants for a while, discussing the merits and idiosyncrasies of the breeds they know.

"I am thinking of selling sheep's milk cheese at the market," replies Gheorghe, after Ali wistfully tells him about the cheese-based desserts of his native land.

"That's a good idea."

"Would you like to try some?"

"Sure, thank you."

Ali beckons to the lady who had served Gheorghe tea and introduces her to him as Sarika. Both of them scoop little chunks from the soft ball of sheep's cheese with disposable stirrers.

After the cheese has been thoroughly sampled and complimented, Ali takes a sip of tea, and asks,

"Listen. The farm you work at, are the animals treated well?"

"Yes."

Gheorghe has worked on farms where this is not the case.

"We may have a business proposition for your employer. You see, I am a butcher, and-"

Johnny ducks into the booth, shortly followed by Sarika, leaflets in one hand, her phone in the other.

"Was looking for you." He looks twitchy and dangerous, hands straining his pants pockets. “Let’s go.”

Gheorghe stands up. "Thank you both for the tea and chat." He says. "We must be leaving now."

"Here, take a card," Ali says quickly, snatching up a card and thrusting it at Gheorghe, who accepts it discreetly, trailing Johnny as he leaves.

*****

On the way home, Johnny asks, "what did that Paki want?"

"Nothing much," Gheorghe replies. "We just talked."

*****

They get home in good time for a quick bite, quickly getting to the chores Deirdre couldn't manage by herself while there is still light out.

Johnny is quiet, going through his work with preoccupied efficiency.

"The cows should be ready to be bred," Gheorghe says.

Johnny gives a nod. "Next cycle."

They do a last check of the paddock gates at dusk before heading inside for tea.

Martin and Deirdre have already eaten, but they sit at the table with them, Johnny giving minimal responses to Martin's abbreviated questions. Gheorghe eats his soup, falling back to his habit of not speaking unless he's spoken to.

Gheorghe gets up to help clear the dishes. Johnny gets up for his second beer, opening and drinking it at the table. Deirdre shoots him a look. Martin appears to be mostly asleep.

Gheorghe starts towards the stairs. It's been a long day and he would like to go to bed.

Johnny stays in his chair and takes another drink but he drops his left arm against the side of the chair, raising it just enough that the back of his fingers trails against Gheorghe's pant leg as he passes by to go upstairs.

"Night. Be up soon."

Gheorghe instinctively shoots a look across the room, but Deirdre is in the kitchen with the dishes, and Martin is asleep in his chair, his mouth slightly open.

"All right." He replies. "See you upstairs."

*****

He is not quite asleep, a book propped on his chest when the door opens.

Johnny comes in, trying to be quiet, giving up when he sees Gheorghe sitting up on the fold-out camp bed, the book falling onto the floor.

"Still up?"

"I was reading." Gheorghe bends over to pick up the book. "It was in the drawer for my clothes..."

"M' not fussed," Johnny says, voice muffled through the t-shirt he is taking off.

"Thank you."

Gheorghe gets up to return the book to the drawer that now contains his clothing. Along the way, he closes a closet door that is ajar and picks up the clothes that Johnny's discarded onto the floor, putting them in the laundry basket.

"Stop faffing about and come to bed," Johnny says, with some asperity.

Gheorghe does, ducking around the camp bed that he nominally sleeps on, wedged kitty-corner to the foot of Johnny's bed. It had mysteriously appeared a week into Gheorghe's return, while they were out mending fence. Sleeping on it is sometimes more comfortable than falling off a normal bed.

They take some time arranging and rearranging themselves to fit, ending up with Johnny on the left, against the wall, spooning Gheorghe.

Johnny is kissing the back of Gheorghe's neck, brushing his lips against the fine hairs on his nape.

"John…" Gheorghe sighs, tilting his head for easier access.

"Let me..." Johnny whispers. "Let me have ya." His fingers are busily plucking at Gheorghe's drawstrings, dipping into the crease between his groin and thigh.

"The drawer-"

"In a minute," Johnny says, reaching in to grip his swelling cock and stroking him hard and fast, sucking kisses at the join of his neck and right shoulder. Gheorghe can feel Johnny's erection trapped between them both, how Johnny's rubbing it up against him in counterpoint to the pumping of his hand.

Gheorghe reaches down into his pants, putting his hand over Johnny's, slowing and gentling the strokes. He rubs his thumb around and under the crown of his cock, spreading a welling bead of precome.

Johnny's breath stutters behind him, tickling the back of his neck. Seized by the desire to kiss him, Gheorghe turns around, reaching his hand up to Johnny’s face, drawing him down.

Both of them continue to stroke Gheorghe to completion, Gheorghe lying on his back, Johnny on his side, kissing as Gheorghe groans and quickens the pace. Johnny cups his fingers around the tip of Gheorghe's cock when he comes, collecting the spend with his fingers, gently milking him through the last of the aftershocks.

Johnny pushes a come-slick finger into Gheorghe's ass, his other hand gripping his hip. Gheorghe is still lying on his back, one knee raised to allow Johnny easier access. Gheorghe's orgasm has left him relaxed enough for this much, but it's not enough for Johnny.

He rolls over on top of Gheorghe, reaching for the drawer where Gheorghe had stashed their recent purchases.

Johnny retrieves and uncaps the lube while Gheorghe watches, his eyes dark and expression soft in the amber light of the bedroom lamp. He squeezes a generous blob onto his fingers and reaches down to spread it around before he slips two fingers in, scissoring a little to stretch Gheorghe out.

Johnny rushes through prep a little more quickly than Gheorghe would prefer, to judge by the wince and the strength in which he grips Johnny's arms as Johnny pushes in. But he doesn't say anything, only a grunt when Johnny bottoms out in him.

Johnny rests his forehead on Gheorghe's collarbone for a few seconds to collect himself, holding off the orgasm that would take him like a wave. Gheorghe kisses the top of his head, angling his hips upwards, making a cradle of himself for his lover.

Eventually, Johnny gets a hold of himself, rising to his knees between Gheorghe's thighs, slipping out of as he does. He grabs Gheorghe's calves, one in each hand, pulling them up and onto each of his shoulders. He lines them up and pushes in again, relishing in the flutter of Gheorghe's eyelashes, the muffled groans as Gheorghe sweetly gives it up to him.

Johnny comes, head down, body clenched, emptying himself into the yielding warmth of Gheorghe's body.

Still breathing hard, he puts a hand around the base of his rapidly-softening cock, holding the condom against his body as he pulls out, drawing one last twitch from Gheorghe. He lowers Gheorghe's legs back onto the bed, and collapses beside him, pulling off the condom and dropping it off the side of the bed.

Gheorghe kisses him and gets up, moving carefully. He'd prefer to stay with Johnny on the bed, but he's sticky in a way that will be painful if it dries in his hair. He scrubs himself clean as best he can with a t-shirt of Johnny’s from the laundry basket and puts his pants back on to go to the bathroom.

He returns with a damp washcloth. “This is cold,” he warns a dozing Johnny, who gets up to wipe himself off, wadding the cloth into a ball he tosses into the laundry basket.

Johnny takes a last look at Gheorghe, who's already lying spread out in his bed, blankets raised, waiting for him. He puts out the light.

**Author's Note:**

> It's unbelievable, but there's a plot to Ambient. It'll take 20 (!) parts as planned so far.
> 
> I've been writing out of sequence as my whimsy takes me, but the chronology matters.
> 
> I headcanon the events of God's Own Country as happening between late March 2017 – May 2017, based on my understanding of temperate phenology (lambs trees etc). Enlighten me if you know better! 
> 
> Here's what's up for now.
> 
> Cull - July 2001  
Dawn - end May 2017  
Market (this one) - early June 2017  
Choice - middle September 2017


End file.
